Learning Log

English 2010
“Donald J. Trump, Pope Francis, and the beef the defied space and time.”
Benjamin Solomon, Jan 15 2019

“Like Shillue, I’m equal parts flabbergasted and bemused by Trump’s use of language. If a student turned
in a sentence like this to me, I’d comment, “I’m not sure this makes logical sense.” I’d consider it first-
drafty, undercooked, and expect the writer to work on clarifying its structure and logic.”

“Pope remarked, “Thank God he said I was a politician, because Aristotle defined the human person as
animal politicus. At least I am a human person.” Notice how the Pope made himself sound more credible
by quoting an ancient Greek philosopher, while also asserting that he’s basically just human, making him
sound more humble at the same time?”

The Pope does not like Trump's idea of building a wall. Trump tweets that the pope will regret if Trump
does not win because ISIS will destroy the Vatican. The pope responds with more effective and logical
language too seem more credit.

“Language Matters: A Rhetorical Look at Writing”

Chris Blankenship and Justin Jory, Jan 17 2019.

“In each example above, language is generative—it creates something. In one instance, it generates a way
of understanding, and thus a way of interacting with an individual or group and their beliefs.”

“Ask anyone who studies rhetoric what it is, and they’ll tell you it’s difficult to define. This is because
rhetoric has been around as a discipline of study for over 2,500 years, and at different times people who
study it have been interested in different things.”

Everyone explains language in their own way and interprets writing meaning differently as well. Two
people can have different idea which blurs language making it messy and seemingly unmanageable.

“Genre in the Wild--- Understanding Genre Within Rhetorical (Eco)Systems”

Lisa Bickmore, Jan 22 2019.

“But we don’t identify genres solely by their formal markers. For instance, memoranda use a specific sort
of header, and lab reports typically have commonly used section headings.”

“This is part of what we mean when we say that genre lives in the recurrent situation—in offices, in labs,
in all kinds of institutional settings.”

They give multiple definitions of the word genre, I do not think genre makes your writing robotic it is a
way to filter you ideas and to force your thinking on what your writing.
“Writing for Community Change”
Elisa Stone, Jan 24 2019.
“Once you jump through all the hoops, finish all your classes, and proudly display your degree, you’ll go
on to your next degree or delve into your career, which will present a new set of obligations and
challenges. Either way, life tends to be busy and stay busy.”

“But let’s face it—being a good citizen doesn’t always help us make rent, or have enough money to see a
movie.”
I would want to help communities outside the one I am currently living in. This is because I have lived in
many communities in many states. I would want to help conserve species in the united states because I
feel before you go to other countries to help them you need to help the country you lived in first.

“The Elizabeth Smart Case: A Study in Narrativized News”

Clint Johnson, 28 Jan 2019.

“The Smart family, with extended kin, refused to let the lack of developments silence media coverage.
They started a website to serve as a resource for the investigation and provided media with home videos
of Elizabeth as a child and teenager.”

“Elizabeth’s testimony sealed her abductor’s conviction. Mitchell was sentenced to two life sentences in
federal prison.”

In my opinion the family of Elizabeth Smart was smart in the way that they immediately tried to gain
support to find their daughter and get her back. They had press conferences and gave names of possible
suspects.

“Writing Is Recursive”
Chris Blankenship, 30 Jan 2019.

“Even if you’re not writing a research paper, you still generally have to figure out new things to complete
a writing task.”

“Writing includes making design choices, such as formatting, font and color use, including and
positioning images, and citing sources appropriately.”

The second picture is more accurate than the first because when you are writing you jump back and forth
between steps mid writing. Writing is a process that is not linear because your mind does not think in a
linear way.

“Making Choices in Writing”

Jessie Szalay, 1 Feb 2019.
“By writing, you are entering into a conversation with your readers, with others who have written about
the topic, and others who know and/or care about it.”

“If you make them carelessly, you might end up with unintended consequences—a tone that doesn’t fit
your medium or audience, logical fallacies, poor sources or overlooked important ones, or something
else.”
I will use professional sounding writing, not over complicate my writing, write to my intended audience,
make it interesting and something people want to read, not make it too long so people stay engaged.

Open Letters
1 Feb 2019.

“I wanted to know what it felt like to live as Italians do, to speak your language and meet your people.”

“My research has confirmed that “deep” reading and reading for pleasure may be the most important
things you can do to prepare for college.”
They are writing to one specific thing or person but targeted to a whole audience. They are addresses
things they what to say in a way that one would talk to a crowd and I feels personal but can lend itself to
being read aloud.

“Peer Review”
Jim Beatty, 5 Feb 2019.

“The least helpful thing you can do when peer reviewing is correct grammar and typos.”

“If they are convinced they have a good thesis statement and they don’t, however, then you can help them
by identifying that.”

“Resist the powerful urge to get defensive over your writing. Try your best not to respond until your
reviewer is finished giving and explaining their feedback.”

A worthwhile peer review is when the person is give you ideas and ways to make your writing more
fluent and well thought out. They tell you how they think your writing should be organized. They will tell
you if your claim or idea is good and will make a powerful piece of writing.

““You Will Never Believe What Happened”-- The Stories We Tell”

Ron Christiansen, 13 Feb 2019.

Telling stories is one way we use language as a resource to create and build relationships.

We are naturally rhetorical beings who attempt to engage those around us through narrative—we shape
the events in our life so they have a plot, characters, conflict, and some sort of resolution.

I can help our writing by making is exciting and more expressive to grab our readers attention. It can also
help develop our writing to making clear and make more sense.

“Is That a True Story?”

Ron Christiansen, 15 Feb 2019.

So it is ironic, indeed, that I now embark on a story about my teaching in order to make a somewhat
academic argument for a particular way of seeing and using stories in the writing classroom. Well . . . on
with the story.
But generally students seemed to ignore my feedback or in one way or another say that they were not able
to flesh out the scene. Sometimes I assumed students were simply being a bit lazy; eventually, I realized
that students were actually asking a specific question in order to figure out if their writing would be
acceptable in this particular rhetorical context: “Does my story have to be true, like completely true?”

Truth is complicated because not everyone can remember everything about an event. Telling the truth can
sometimes leave you valuable depending on what you can talking about. It is hard to put the truth into
word sometimes because most of the time lying is less complicated than the truth.

“Adding the Storyteller’s Tools to the Writer’s Toolbox”

Clint Johnson, 21 Feb 2019.

Power of Scene- Your writing should be short and to the point.

Power of Experience- Tell a story to make the reader feel like they experienced what you are writing
about.
Power of Sensory Detail- Do not only write about the surface details write about the textures and get
reality to the object.
Power of Voice- Make all the characters in your story have their own distinctive personality.
Power of Conflict- Have a problem for the characters to solve and it is one people care about.

“Memorability: 6 Keys for Success”

Nikki Mantyla, 25 Feb 2019.

Jerry Seinfeld uses a simple response to the situation. He said unexpected things for the american culture
to get people to laugh about the situation. He showed the audience the faulty light in action instead of
only talking about it. He used his reputation to get people to laugh about the light. He put emotion into the
situation by acting frustrated and embodied the whole crowd. He told a story while he was talking about
the light. He has a hook, conflict and everything you would need in a story.

“Story as Rhetorical: We Can’t Escape the Story No Matter How Hard We Try”
Ron Christiansen, 28 Feb 2019.

“To confess is to tell a story about ourselves. Confessional stories may include a particular moral framing,
but nevertheless, a confessional story is a narration of our lives for a particular purpose, in this case,
redemption or catharsis.”

“During the panel, Irene Papoulis confessed how, in her first year of teaching, she lied about her actual
beliefs about using stories in her writing classrooms. She bemused, “I find it amazing to think that so
many years later I still strive to argue for storytelling as a form of analysis, and I still carry a nagging
sense of shame about that, a murmur of ‘you’re touchy-feely, you’re not rigorous enough.’””

“Teachers are sometimes engaged in a debate, maybe even a contest, concerning how rigorous their
courses are in comparison to other colleagues. I suspect that, in fact, throughout your already lengthy
academic careers, a lot of extra work, sometimes busy work, has landed on your lap because a teacher of
yours was trying to prove herself a rigorous teacher.”
A story can be an argument when you are trying to prove something. Also if you are trying to tell how
something happen to people who might not believe you. Stories are a great way to make an argument
because be telling a story you can go into more detail and add elements to help your cause.